This invention relates to an apparatus for shearing deposits adhered to the interior wall of a vessel, for example an arteriosclerotic deposit from either a lumen of an occluded artery, a graft or a vascular conduit.
The removal of deposits from the interior of a vessel has been the object of much medical research. Such removal has been achieved by cutting or stripping. Alternatively the deposit may be compacted and simply left within a vessel such as an artery. In this regard see U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,452,244; 4,574,781; and 4,630,609. U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,611, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a method and apparatus which utilizes radially expansible helically configured wire loops to grip and shear arteriosclerotic deposits from the lumen of an occluded artery. The apparatus disclosed in this patent however, is complicated in that it requires a separate connection between its wire loops and their carrier.